New Year's Road

Christmas is merely a memory, growing ever smaller in the rear-view mirror of life, with New Year’s Eve fast on it’s heels. The new year stretches out in front of me, full of mystery, hope and potential.

I wonder what lies on the road ahead.

Will it be a road full of long strait monotonous patches where the miles (or in this case days) all blur into one. Where the repetition and predictability of events makes you feel you are on some sort of auto-pilot, just coasting along, without needed to do much steering, without there being much to look and or much to keep you from being bored to tears?

Or will it be a rough and rocky road, full of potholes and slippery patches, where, if you aren’t careful, you might even slide off the road and end up in a ditch somewhere, far removed from civilization or salvation. Will the road be so rough and so fraught with peril that the way forward will seem almost impassable, too dangerous or painful to traverse?

Will the weather on our road trip called 2009 bring clear sunny skies that bathe everything in beauty, or oppressive heat that virtually immobilizes all creatures; or dark stormy skies that dampen spirits; or will Mother Nature provide breezy days that escort us on our journeys.

I hope the road ahead be like driving through the Rocky Mountains; the road twisting and dipping and curving, just enough to keep it interesting but not enough to endanger. Where the long winding and almost treacherous bits give way to scenes of great beauty and peace; having the narrow road open up revealing a topaz blue glacial lake, placid and pure or a grand mountain peak lightly dusted with snow. Where all the climbing and challenges are rewarded with easy patches of downhill driving and safe areas to take a break and stretch your legs and take in some of the beauty and wonder that is to be 2009.

Here’s hoping that the road through 2009 is punctuated with beauty, challenges, easy patches and interesting experiences with a goodly number of rest breaks and view points scattered along the way!